Historical, industry-leading visual effects company Technicolor Group has gone into administration in the United Kingdom.
The 110-year-old company owns and operates several industry-leading visual effects studios including MPC (“Mufasa”, “The Lion King”), Mikros Animation and The Mil (Gladiator, Black Hawk Down), operating in the U.S., U.K., Canada and India.
Administration and advisory firm Interpath said "the majority" of the more than 440 people employed by Technicolour in the U.K. have been made redundant and the appointment of administrators relates only to the U.K. arm.
The firm's joint administrator Nick Holloway said, "The economic headwinds which are affecting companies right across the creative industries have proved too challenging to overcome.”
On Friday, 22 February, Technicolor began alerting customers and employees, sending U.S. employees a WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notice as required by law.
“Technicolor has been facing severe financial challenges. Despite exhaustive efforts — including restructuring initiatives, discussions with potential investors, and exploring acquisition opportunities — we have been unable to secure a viable path forward,” said the notice obtained by Variety.
“Unfortunately, this leaves us with no alternative but to acknowledge that the Company may be forced to foreclose…If no viable solution is found, we may be required to cease our U.S. operations as early as Monday, February 24, 2025.”
Following a weekend of 11th-hour deals to save the company Variety reported that Technicolor Group CEO Caroline Parot had alerted employees that due to failing to secure new investors, the group had “filed for Court ‘recovery procedure’ before the French Court of Justice to give a chance to find solutions.”
In 2022 Technicolor Creative Studios announced itself as an independent, publicly traded company on the Paris Euronext stock exchange following the planned distribution of 65% of the company’s shares to Technicolor shareholders and concurrent listing on Euronext.
On January 2 2024, it was announced that following the expiry of the simplified tender offer on its shares, Technicolor Creative Studios SA has requested the suspension of the listing of its shares until implementation of the squeeze-out and mandatory delisting.
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